Dream Island chronicles Skokholm transformation (From Western Telegraph)

Dream Island chronicles Skokholm transformation

3:30pm Friday 14th September 2012 in News

A six part documentary chronicling life on Pembrokeshire’s Skokholm Island starts on ITV Wales tonight (Friday).

Presented by Trevor Fishlock, and produced and directed by local film maker Gordon Main, the series has taken two summers to film and extensively explores Skokholm.

It documents the wildlife of this special place and the people involved in its transformation.

One of the UK's most spectacular havens for sea birds and home to puffins and other exotic species, the island was bought by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales in 2007.

In the last two years a great deal of refurbishment work has taken place, almost all of it undertaken by volunteers with a lot of support from local companies.

“It has been a big challenge for the Wildlife Trust and the Friends of Skokholm and Skomer whose members have now totalled almost 10,000 hours of work on the island,” said Friends founder Steve Sutcliffe.

“The next step is to bring the lighthouse, also recently purchased by the Trust, up to a liveable standard to house the island staff, future researchers and bird observatory volunteers.

“It is hoped that by 2015 the island will once again gain Bird Observatory status effectively re-inventing its past as Britain’s first Observatory.”

Dream Island airs at 8pm on ITV Wales for the next six Friday nights.